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Ahead of the July 23 repeat Senate and State Assembly rerun elections in the eastern zone of Kogi state, there is palpable fear of violence in the zone over the exclusion of All Progressives Congress, APC, candidates in the coming exercise.
A group known as Network of Igala Association (NIA) in the eastern zone of the state, has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend the scheduled repeat rerun coming up on Saturday 23rd of this month .
The group, in a letter signed by it leader, Comrade Ojile Ibrahim, and addressed to the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakub, said, “The reason behind this call is as a result of the observation and investigation by many people on a plan by the majority voters of a particular political party whose candidates were unlawfully excluded in the election to cause crises.”
The letter equally accused the electoral umpire of favoring the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its senatorial candidate who never took part in the general elections.
There are palpable fears that the exclusion of the APC and it candidates in the coming exercise by INEC, is not only illegal but attempt to to stir unnecessary crises in the area.
Some leaders of the party are still arguing that that the court judgment did not bar the APC from participating. This stance is causing serious confusion among electorates.
But INEC has maintained her stand that the commission’s decision to exclude APC was based on the appellate court order, arguing that the commission has no power to exclude any party and it candidate.
The appeal court did ordered the commission to conduct fresh elections, as the previous was a nullity based on the fact that the APC did not conduct any primary in affected areas of the state.
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